Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

Your time in Korea has come to an end...checks on the bucket list, memories made. You are filled with emotions, one of them is stress. Just as much as packing up your life and moving abroad was intimidating, so too, is moving back home. Living and teaching in Korea has become a second home. Teachers who return to their home country often experience culture shock and struggle to adjust to the lifestyle they had before.

I remember the day I left for Korea like it was yesterday. My stomach was flying with nerves as I began unpacking my bags at the airport. I recall my luggage weighing too much and I was frantically throwing things in and out of my suitcase. At that time, I hadn't traveled much and I knew nothing about teaching and had very little knowledge about Korea and Korean people. Even though I tried to do as much research as possible, no travel book could have prepared me for the journey ahead. Below I offer three tips about things you should do prior to departing to teach in Korea.

When you are packing your suitcase, especially when you are moving to the other side of the world, packing maybe a daunting task. On the one hand you don't want to over pack and have to deal with lugging huge suitcases around, on the other hand however you want to make sure you pack essential items to make sure you can live comfortably.

Recently we asked Neil, who just returned to to teach in Korea for ChungDahm, and Jessica, who recently ended her time as a teacher with ChungDahm and now has since become a recruiter for Aclipse, if they could offer their best tips for packing. Neil and Jessica were able to compile a list of 10 items they highly recommend packing and we will feature the first five today and the second five in a blog next week.

Every 3 months, ChungDahm has a huge surge of teachers who decide to change their lives and move to teach in Korea. Our contracts are all for one year so that means you should have enough of your personal items to last. There are some things that you cannot find here so it is best to bring what you need. Here is a list of items that you should pack just in case it’s not here.

Packing for Korea can be one of the most stressful things you do prior to moving across the world to teach abroad. If you have never lived in Korea and or experienced Korean culture, misleading stereotypes and conflicting stories about what you can and cannot buy in Korea can make packing confusing.

Moving to the other side of the world is no easy feat. In getting to Korea, a lot of the process is assisted by Aclipse, especially when it comes to all of your paperwork. Packing for Korea is somewhat daunting, but thanks to packingguides from my fellow bloggers, I think you're pretty well set with advice. Recently, I made the big move from Korea back to the U.S., after three years of accumulating way more stuff that I'd realized. Here are my dos and don'ts for packing up to leave Korea at the end of your contract...

Moving abroad for the first time can be a very stressful process. Looking back now, and thinking about how I packed my luggage for the first time, I wish that someone had offered me better advice on what to take and how to pack it. Of course it doesn’t help you when you have never been to Asia before and all you have to go on is 1) Asian stereotypes and 2) What other people tell you. I will be the first one to admit I took way to many things and spent too much money on items I could’ve bought on first arrival in Korea. I remember that hilarious and embarrassing moment when my parents helped me unpack and repack my bags at the airport!

The nerves and the stress that come with moving out of one place and into a new one are terrible. Especially when you have been living somewhere for a full year, and accumulated so many new items, friends, and tastes. Luckily, moving back to your home after a year in Korea is not too much of a hassle! I've put together a list of five very easy tasks to complete to make sure your return is as smooth as possible. I returned to the United States, but most of these steps are applicable to any return country.